Monday, May 21, 2018

“Usually, we try to go to Memorial Day and see where you are on Memorial Day and see what the strength and weaknesses are of the team are and how we can supplement what we need to compete,” Duquette said. “I am not sure we will be in that position this year.”

The asking price for Machado will be steep. Shortstop Addison Russell and outfielder Ian Happ are the two Cubs who have often found their names tied to Machado trade rumors, and as cost-controlled young players under contract for quite ...

Meadows was the Pirates’ first-round pick, the No. 9 overall selection, in the 2013 Draft. He is the club’s No. 2 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, and the No. 42 overall prospect in MLB. He has been held back in previous years by injuries, including oblique and hamstring strains, but he has long been viewed as one of the Pirates’ future building blocks in the outfield.

“It’s been a tough road, but I feel like that’s behind me now,” Meadows said earlier this year. “I’ve really learned a lot. I’ve ...

Customs officials caused the International League game, scheduled for [Toronto] on Friday, with Binghamton, to be postponed. They held up the Toronto players, refusing to allow them to enter Canada at Niagara Falls, because of dissatisfaction with the standing of some of the American players in the selective service. Players expect to secure necessary papers to allow them to pass today.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

She has an area in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and has been interviewed by some of the greats, but now Ila Borders is saving lives and serving the community of Cornelius.
[...]
The trajectory of her life then changed with a pair of tragic events. Borders lost her grandmother to a drowning and lost her partner to a drunken driver.

She battled serious depression, but found a new life in Oregon.

Borders is now 43 and married again. She is in her third year as lieutenant and paramedic for ...

Baseball players who land exempted “bomb proof” jobs were assailed [in Chicago] on Friday by President Ban Johnson of the American League. The dash by Joe Jackson of the White Sox to find a shipbuilding job after being placed in Class 1 roiled Johnson’s patriotism.

A number of major leaguers in munition plants devote a portion of their time to baseball and are said to approximate their old-time salaries.

There was nothing startling in the announcement from Boston that several offers of very high figures had been made to Harry Frazee for services of George Ruth, elephantine southpaw of the Red Sox. In fact, the announcement that Frazee had been offered $100,000 for his star port flinger caused little astonishment in the inner circles of baseball.

As baseball values have come to be known of late the price offered for the big flinger is low indeed, for it ...

Playing for the Dodgers primarily in a bench role from 1973 to 1979, Mota batted .312 in 652 plate appearances, as well as a .376 OBP. Tango believes that a talented batter is just that, regardless of whether it’s coming in after the seventh inning with the game on the line or hitting in the starting lineup. Davey Johnson concurs.

“Yeah, I think they’re just good hitters,” Johnson agrees. “When the situation arises and you look for your pitch, it’s about being aggressive. They ...

Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price, missed his Wednesday start against the team’s hated rival New York Yankees because of mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. And after questions have arisen about how frequently he gets a Fortnite fix, the pitcher said he’s hanging up his controller, at least around the ballpark, reports MLB.com.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Because Americans – well, Americans may well love to gamble as much as anyone, and that the country needed a multi-billion-dollar underground economy to swell for decades felt particularly un-American. Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that took away Nevada’s monopoly on legal sports gambling served as the first step to this brand-new world where our sports gambling options will be as plentiful as our minds allow.

Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano was suspended for 80 games on Tuesday following a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug, according to multiple reports, including Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic

From what I’ve read Hector Gomez, a reporter in the Dominican, is the one who broke the story.

Ah, perhaps the toughest entry of all for me to come up with, given how I place the Yankees just above Pol Pot and one spot below You Tube stars on my hierarchy of historical malevolence, and that’s only because the Yankees have slipped down a few spaces after the nice anti-bullying video they recently did.

Yankee Stadium III is that rare new park that seems to be least appreciated by the fans of the club, particularly in comparison with the facility it replaced. From what I can tell, it ...

By hitting home runs in three consecutive games he participated in Babe Ruth a few days ago tied the record for homers in consecutive games. Curiously enough the record has only been accomplished by pitchers, Ruth and Ray Caldwell.

Ferdie Schupp, the Giants’ youthful southpaw, whose pitching arm has been troubling him all Spring, paid a visit to Bonesetter Reese in Youngstown, Ohio yesterday.

The specialist, after a close examination of the arm, found that the young pitcher had pulled a tendon close to the shoulder. He snapped the tendon back into place and ordered Schupp to refrain from pitching at least a week, after which he said the arm would be as good as ever.

We just passed the halfway mark in this endeavor. Yet like the baseball season itself, the second half won’t take quite as many days to complete.

Just as College Week gives Jeopardy host Alex Trebek a younger group of contestants to insult, and Fleet Week depletes the stock of antibiotics on our nation’s maritime vessels, By Acclimation Week is going to speed up the Taking Back the Ballparks project.

If my assumptions are correct, each day this week we’ll check off another team, a ...

Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell will be forced to miss his team’s four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays next week due to ongoing legal issues that will prevent him from entering Canada, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The westernmost park I’ve ever visited. My one night there, I watched Aaron Cook throw a 79-pitch, four-hit, no-walk shutout against the Padres in a nifty one hour, 58 minutes. I haven’t been paying attention: Does it still play as such a severe pitcher’s park?

Truthfully, it’s behind only PNC on my personal favorite list. Just a beautiful place in a really nice setting. And that’s something coming from me, as I don’t like spending time west of the Mississippi, or south of the ...

Oriole Park at Camden Yards remains the template for the modern park, in all the right ways. Place it in a convenient, central city location? Check. Incorporate the surrounding area into the design? Check. Offer the customer new ways to enjoy the game beyond what was previously available? Got that.

Only two problems. They almost got the name perfect, but the Oriole Park part was simply unnecessary. Without its useless appendage, Camden Yards would be on the Mount Rushmore of baseball park ...

Of all the paid-for ballpark names, this one probably works the best. The title sponsor’s name is short and kind of generic, so we aren’t dealing with something that’s obviously corporate. Miller’s ties to the city run long and deep. And, of course, the team’s nickname pulls from the very industry of the brand. You could argue that Miller Park would be one of the best names for the park even if the brewery wasn’t forking over the dough for the privilege.

Today I’m not writing to promote the virtues of Major League Baseball or Portland as a baseball city. I’m writing from the perspective of one who worked on the last successful effort to bring a professional sports team to town—the Portland Timbers—and as someone who has worked in state and local politics for nearly 30 years. Few situations are fraught with as much politics as bringing a professional sports team to a community. If you look closely at cities that have experienced these debates, ...

All-Star second baseman Robinson Cano was struck on the hand by an 88-mph fastball from Tigers starter Blaine Hardy in his second at-bat. The ball rode up and in on Cano, who couldn’t get out of the way. It made a sickening sound as it struck the back of Cano’s hand flush against the bat, fracturing the fifth metacarpal below his pinky finger.

“It was a rough day,” manager Scott Servais said. “It’s a freak accident. I don’t know how long he’s going to be out or where we’re ...